This study will focus on the black hospital movement which was initiated by black medical leaders to improve black hospitals during the years 1920- 1945. These physicians accurately believed that the growing importance of hospital accreditation and standardization would lead to the elimination of black hospitals and with it the black doctors' professional existence. At the time, these institutions provided most of the opportunities for black medical professionals to train and practice. This study will also examine the activities of black community organizations, white philanthropies, local and federal governments, and major health care organizations to maintain the healthiest black hospitals. It will use three case studies (Cleveland, Chicago, and Tuskegee, Alabama) to explore the relationships of black hospitals to black communities and to analyze the ideological tensions within the communities over the existence of the institutions. The manuscript which will result from this project will differ from previous work in the history of American hospitals in that it concentrates on how issues of race influenced the development of hospitals. Research for this project has been conducted at several archives. The papers of black health care professionals, black hospitals, philanthropies, and local and federal agencies have been examined. In addition, the PI has systematically reviewed medical and hospital journals, publications of black political organizations, and black newspapers.